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reileenBut this is not one of those times.
In fact, I kinda hate you right now.
From Shapely Prose, Kate Harding takes on a Japanese national law that came into effect two years ago:
"Further re-education"? I'm assuming this is going to involve a lot more than being forced to stand out in the hallway holding two full buckets of water.
I know some of you might be wondering why this bothers me, because anyone who knows me knows I am one of the Skinniest Bitches That Ever Was Skinny, and that I have never had any real problems with how my body looks save for the occasional comment that perhaps I could use a little more stack on the rack.
But even though I haven't personally had body image problems, I know a lot of people - mostly females - who do, and it makes me sad because I've never considered them to be anything but beautiful, awesome people. Yes, they were bigger than me, but so what? A freakin' toothpick is bigger than I am. These girls and women I knew certainly weren't fat, either by the connotative definition of the word (that being "fat" also automatically equates to being "worthless", "ugly", "stupid", et cetera and so forth) or the denotative definition (that is, the opposite of being "thin"). I would really, really love for there to be a push back to using "fat" in its denotative sense, but this little piece of news from Japan isn't really going to be helping much. Be sure to check out the comments at that entry for more insight into how very hive-mind-ish Japanese culture really can be, from people who used to live there or who currently live there. In a place where it's considered acceptable to shame someone into conformity and where a common way of addressing a problem is to pretend that it doesn't exist, this sort of thing can only end in trouble for those who deviate even only a little from some idealized standard.
Also from Shapely Prose, there's this little piece about how childhood icons like Strawberry Shortcake have been "updated" to be more sexualized. There's a couple of comments on that entry about how everyone seems to be jumping on the anime-style bandwagon, which was personally more my beef with the more recent childhood icons than it was the sexualization of them - which I guess says a lot about what my priorities really are. Still, well worth reading through and thinking over.
-Reileen
the light in me will guide you home
In fact, I kinda hate you right now.
From Shapely Prose, Kate Harding takes on a Japanese national law that came into effect two years ago:
Under a national law that came into effect two months ago, companies and local governments must now measure the waistlines of Japanese people between the ages of 40 and 74 as part of their annual checkups. That represents more than 56 million waistlines, or about 44 percent of the entire population.
Those exceeding government limits — 33.5 inches for men and 35.4 inches for women, which are identical to thresholds established in 2005 for Japan by the International Diabetes Federation as an easy guideline for identifying health risks — and having a weight-related ailment will be given dieting guidance if after three months they do not lose weight. If necessary, those people will be steered toward further re-education after six more months.
"Further re-education"? I'm assuming this is going to involve a lot more than being forced to stand out in the hallway holding two full buckets of water.
I know some of you might be wondering why this bothers me, because anyone who knows me knows I am one of the Skinniest Bitches That Ever Was Skinny, and that I have never had any real problems with how my body looks save for the occasional comment that perhaps I could use a little more stack on the rack.
But even though I haven't personally had body image problems, I know a lot of people - mostly females - who do, and it makes me sad because I've never considered them to be anything but beautiful, awesome people. Yes, they were bigger than me, but so what? A freakin' toothpick is bigger than I am. These girls and women I knew certainly weren't fat, either by the connotative definition of the word (that being "fat" also automatically equates to being "worthless", "ugly", "stupid", et cetera and so forth) or the denotative definition (that is, the opposite of being "thin"). I would really, really love for there to be a push back to using "fat" in its denotative sense, but this little piece of news from Japan isn't really going to be helping much. Be sure to check out the comments at that entry for more insight into how very hive-mind-ish Japanese culture really can be, from people who used to live there or who currently live there. In a place where it's considered acceptable to shame someone into conformity and where a common way of addressing a problem is to pretend that it doesn't exist, this sort of thing can only end in trouble for those who deviate even only a little from some idealized standard.
Also from Shapely Prose, there's this little piece about how childhood icons like Strawberry Shortcake have been "updated" to be more sexualized. There's a couple of comments on that entry about how everyone seems to be jumping on the anime-style bandwagon, which was personally more my beef with the more recent childhood icons than it was the sexualization of them - which I guess says a lot about what my priorities really are. Still, well worth reading through and thinking over.
-Reileen
the light in me will guide you home